Home > Media > Books > Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter - Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter - Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
caroleg's Full Review: Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter - Rich Da...
How many people have told you to study hard...make good grades...get a good job? Probably a lot because this was the “right thing to do”. The mantra sort of reminds me of an alternative rock song that I heard a few years ago that consisted of exactly four words “Birth. School. Work. Death.” It’s kind of depressing when you put it that way, eh?
Why’d I read this book?
A friend of mine who runs her own Public Relations business told me she was going to get her hands on it after hearing about it on Oprah. She’d just learned some sort of new work formula that said something to the effect of “You should spend 20 years working for somebody else…20 years working for yourself…and the rest of your life letting your money work for you.” Nice concept if you can get it to work for you. I checked out the book on Amazon.com where 223 people had written reviews on it. And, naturally, I checked out Epinions.com which, also had some great book reviews. Eager to get many hands on it, I picked it up at my local Borders Books at 30% off the regular price of $14.95.
What’s the overall concept?
As the title implies, the author was raised on advice from two different people: one who ended up rich and one who didn’t. Why paraphrase when I can quote Robert Kiyosaki directly:
“I had two fathers, a rich one and a poor one. One was highly educated and intelligent; he had a Ph.D. and completed four years of undergraduate work in less than two years. He then went on to Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern to do his advanced studies, all on full scholarships. The other father never finished the eighth grade. Both men were successful in their careers, working hard all their lives. Both earned substantial incomes. Yet one struggled financially all his life. The other would become one of the richest men in Hawaii. One died leaving tens of millions of dollars to his family, charities and his church. The other left bills to be paid.”
So what’s the lesson here?
In these days of “Old Ecomony” vs. “New Economy”, we are learning that we have to adapt our thinking about how we work, why we work and what’s in it for us differently than our parents and our grandparents did. Whether you agree with everything the author says or not, you should at least give the book a chance because it will give you that different perspective. Here’s an example of what I mean:
“People like me play by a different set of rules from what you play by. What happens when a corporation has a downsizing?”
The co-author replies, “People [loose their jobs]*. Families are hurt. Unemployment goes up.”
Kiyosaki then says, ‘Yes, but what happens to the company, in particular a public company on the stock exchange?”
The co-author replies “The price of stock usually goes up when a downsizing is announced. The market likes it when a company reduces its labor costs, either through automation or just consolidating the labor force in general.”
“That’s right” says Kiyosaki. “And when stock prices go up, people like me, the shareholders, get richer. That is what I mean by a different set of rules. Employees lose; owners and investors win.”
If you’ve ever been laid off, like I have, you need to understand how this all works. Learning to be on the winning side of a lay-off instead of the losing side is important to your financial future. A lot of people who wrote reviews for Amazon.com thought this guy was a little cold hearted and greedy. Okay, maybe. So don’t invite him to your next dinner party if you don’t think you’d like to spend more time with him but see what he has to say.
I wish I picked up some of these concepts sooner.
When I was in my senior year of college, I was offered a Master Card with an 18% interest rate and a $3,000 credit limit. I felt so independent getting this card. Do you know that I kept using this card for the next eight years? With the exception of getting an American Express card, I just threw out other offers for cards because I already had one. In the mean time, I was being robbed! When I finally got the whole card paid off and went to cancel it so that I’d just use my American Express card, the phone operator at the other end of the phone had the authority to lower the interest on that card down to 12%. The phone operator! Boy did I feel stupid hanging on to that card for so long and paying them all that interest.
Good thing life is a learning process!
It’s okay not to know everything right out of the gate. What’s important in life to make mistakes, learn from them and move on. No matter where you are in your life, I think you’ll find the concepts in this book to be very interesting. Everyone should find something that they can apply to their financial future.
Interested in this book, but not ready to spend $14.95 for the paperback? For a FREE audio report entitled “What My Rich Dad Taught Me About Money” check out www.richdad1.com and download the report.
* I had to modify this phrase a bit because of the epinions filters who were thinking the phrase was "naughty" when it really just referred to lay offs.
Taking the message that the poor and middle class work for money, but the rich have money work for them to heart, personal-finance author and lecturer...More at HotBookSale
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